Tyler Roby Pippen: Scottie Pippen’s Son Who Lived Nine Days

Tyler Pippen was born on 20 July 1994 in Chicago, the twin brother of Taylor Pippen and the second of Scottie Pippen’s eight children. He lived nine days, and died at Mercy Hospital.

His mother was the model Sonya Roby, whose surname is the one attached to his name in search results. He arrived in the summer that followed the finest individual season of his father’s career, and his birth became the subject of a paternity case that was settled by a DNA test three months later.

Who Was Tyler Roby Pippen?

He was the infant son of Scottie Pippen, the six-time NBA champion, and Sonya Roby, and the twin brother of a sister who is alive today.

The twins were the only children Pippen had with Roby, and the only twins among his eight. Tyler was born first in a family that would eventually stretch across four mothers and twenty-one years, from Antron in 1987 to Sophia in 2008.

He Was a Son, Not a Daughter

Tyler was a boy. This needs saying plainly, because a large share of what is written about him online describes a daughter, and the error has spread far enough that it now appears in page titles and search descriptions.

The confusion comes from his twin. Taylor Pippen is a woman, and she is the one most people have actually read about, because she has given interviews and lived a public-facing adult life. Writers working from thin notes have merged the two children into one and assigned Tyler his sister’s gender.

Anyone researching this family should start from the correct version: twins, one boy and one girl, born the same day to the same mother.

Where the Roby Name Comes From

The middle name in the searched version of his name is his mother’s surname.

Sonya Roby was a model based in Chicago. The children took Pippen as their surname and Roby survives in the way Tyler is referred to online, which is why he appears as Tyler Roby Pippen rather than simply Tyler Pippen. His sister is almost always written as Taylor Pippen without the middle name, which is another small reason the two have become tangled in search results.

Cause of Death

The cause has never been publicly disclosed, and no credible record states one.

What is documented is narrow and specific. He was born on 20 July 1994, he lived nine days, and he died at Mercy Hospital in Chicago. The family has never discussed it, no public statement addressed it at the time, and no medical detail has entered the record in the three decades since.

That is the complete and honest answer to a question that gets asked often. Pages offering a confident explanation are not drawing on anything, because there is nothing to draw on, and a newborn’s medical history is not something to reconstruct from guesswork.

His Twin Sister, Taylor Pippen

Taylor Pippen survived, grew up near Chicago in her mother’s custody, and has spoken publicly about what carrying the surname has meant.

She told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo in 2016, in remarks later translated and reported in the United States, that her father “never wanted to meet me,” adding that he had decided it would be that way. The estrangement has defined much of how she is written about.

She has pushed back against that framing herself. Speaking about growing up in Illinois, she said: “I was born and raised near Chicago, you can imagine how many questions I have been asked about my father.” On a podcast in 2023 she went further, saying she had learned that “Pippen is just that, a last name,” and that she wanted to be “Taylor Pippen before I am Scottie Pippen’s daughter.”

She lives in Chicago and has served as a junior board member of the charity Beyond Sports.

The 1994 Paternity Case

The circumstances around the twins’ birth were contested at the time.

Scottie Pippen initially denied that he was the father. A DNA test in October 1994, roughly three months after the twins were born and some ten weeks after Tyler died, established paternity. He acknowledged it in court and agreed to pay child support.

The court granted Sonya Roby full custody of Taylor, with visitation rights for Pippen. Those rights were available to him, and by his daughter’s account he did not use them.

This matters to the story of a child who lived nine days because it establishes the one thing that is otherwise hard to pin down: Tyler’s parentage is not a matter of rumour or family lore. It was determined by a laboratory test and recorded by an Illinois court in the autumn of 1994.

Where His Father’s Career Stood That Summer

The twins were born about ten weeks after the end of the best individual season Scottie Pippen ever played, which gives the date a context nothing written about Tyler has ever supplied.

Michael Jordan had retired in October 1993. The 1993-94 Bulls were widely expected to collapse without him, and instead Pippen carried them to 55 wins. He averaged a career-high 22.0 points and 8.7 rebounds, made his first All-NBA First Team, and was named All-Star Game MVP in February 1994. He finished third in Most Valuable Player voting that year.

The following season he did something almost no one has: in 1994-95 he led the Bulls in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks, the first player to lead his team in all five categories since Dave Cowens in 1977-78, and he led the entire NBA in steals per game.

So the summer of 1994 sat exactly between the two finest years of his professional life, and the DNA test came that October as the second of them was beginning.

Scottie Pippen’s Children

Eight children, four mothers, born across twenty-one years.

Six are living. Tyler died in 1994 and Antron died in 2021.

Antron Pippen

The family lost a second son in 2021.

Antron Pippen, Scottie’s firstborn, died on 18 April 2021 at the age of 33. His mother was Karen McCollum, Pippen’s first wife. His father announced the death on Instagram the following day, writing that he was heartbroken and had said goodbye to his firstborn son.

He also explained what had held Antron back. Antron had lived with chronic asthma, and his father said he believed that without it his son would have reached the NBA, describing him as someone who had stayed positive and worked hard through it.

Antron was seven years old when his twin siblings were born, and he is the only one of the eight who was old enough at the time to remember it.

The Pippen Brothers Playing Today

Two of Tyler’s younger brothers are active basketball players, and both have had eventful seasons.

Scotty Pippen Jr., born 10 November 2000, plays for the Memphis Grizzlies. He went to Vanderbilt, took First-Team All-SEC honours in both 2021 and 2022, and went undrafted in 2022 before two-way deals with the Lakers and then Memphis, where his contract was converted to a multi-year agreement in October 2024.

His NBA record stands at 116 games with 43 starts, averaging 10.2 points, 4.3 assists and 3.0 rebounds on 47.7 percent shooting and 39.3 percent from three. He made his playoff debut in April 2025 and scored 30 points in Game 4 against Oklahoma City, the game that ended Memphis’s season.

The last year has been difficult. A sesamoidectomy on his left big toe in October 2025 cost him at least twelve weeks. He returned on 6 February 2026 with 13 points and 6 assists against Portland, was ejected and later fined $35,000 after an altercation on 21 February, averaged 11.4 points and 4.7 assists across ten games, and was ruled out for the rest of the season on 13 March 2026 following a second operation on the same foot.

Justin Pippen, born 11 July 2005, came out of Sierra Canyon, spent a season at Michigan, transferred to California in 2025 and started at point guard for the Golden Bears. He finished that season averaging 14.2 points, 4.6 assists and 3.9 rebounds, scored a career-high 24 against SMU in February 2026, and took All-ACC honourable mention. His 61 steals were the fourth-most in a single season in California history. He entered the transfer portal again afterwards and committed to Ohio State on 10 April 2026.

Scottie Pippen’s Career Record

The father whose name draws people to this story has one of the most decorated records in basketball.

He was the fifth pick of the 1987 draft, selected by Seattle out of Central Arkansas and traded to Chicago for Olden Polynice on draft night, which stands as one of the most lopsided trades in league history. By the time he retired he had played 208 playoff games, second only to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 237 at the time, and recorded 20 regular-season triple-doubles.

Scottie Pippen’s Career Earnings

His playing contracts total roughly $110 million, and the shape of that figure is one of the better-known stories in NBA labour history.

In 1991 he signed a seven-year extension with the Bulls worth about $19.4 million, or roughly $2.8 million a year. It looked like security at the time. It became, across the second three-peat, one of the most underpaid contracts in the sport, holding him near $2 to $3 million a season while he was among the best players alive.

In 1994, the year the twins were born, his salary was $2,225,000.

The correction came late. His 1999 sign-and-trade was worth around $77.4 million across five years, and his highest-earning season came in 2002 at just under $19.8 million, more than his entire 1991 extension had paid him across its first six years combined.

For another look at the family life behind a long professional sports career, see the story of Dusty Baker’s wife Melissa Esplana.

Frequently Asked Questions

Short answers to the questions asked most often about him and his family.

Who was Tyler Roby Pippen?

He was the infant son of Scottie Pippen and the model Sonya Roby, born on 20 July 1994 in Chicago and the twin brother of Taylor Pippen. He lived nine days.

Was Tyler a son or a daughter?

A son. A large share of what is published online calls him a daughter, which is an error caused by confusion with his twin sister Taylor.

What happened to him?

He died nine days after his birth, at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, in late July 1994.

What was his cause of death?

It has never been publicly disclosed. No medical detail has entered the public record, and the family has not discussed it in the three decades since.

When was he born?

20 July 1994, in Chicago, alongside his twin sister Taylor.

Who was his mother?

Sonya Roby, a Chicago model. Taylor and Tyler were her only children with Scottie Pippen, and the court later granted her full custody of Taylor.

Did Scottie Pippen acknowledge the twins?

Not at first. He initially denied paternity, and a DNA test in October 1994 established that he was the father. He acknowledged it in court and agreed to pay child support.

Who is his twin sister?

Taylor Pippen, who lives in Chicago. She has said publicly that her father never wanted to meet her, and that she wants to be known as Taylor Pippen before being known as Scottie Pippen’s daughter.

How many children does Scottie Pippen have?

Eight, by four mothers: Antron, Taylor, Tyler, Sierra, Scotty Jr., Preston, Justin and Sophia. Six are living.

Which of his siblings play basketball?

Scotty Pippen Jr. plays for the Memphis Grizzlies, averaging 10.2 points and 4.3 assists across 116 NBA games, and Justin Pippen committed to Ohio State in April 2026 after a season at California.

What happened to Antron Pippen?

Scottie Pippen’s firstborn died on 18 April 2021 at the age of 33. His father said chronic asthma had limited him and that he believed Antron would otherwise have reached the NBA.

How much did Scottie Pippen earn as a player?

Roughly $110 million in career contracts. His 1991 Bulls extension paid him about $19.4 million across seven years, a figure widely regarded as far below his value during the second three-peat, and his highest-paid season came in 2002 at just under $19.8 million.

Faye Smith covers celebrity biographies, net worth and entertainment news for TryMyBio. She writes the profiles, checks the claims, and updates them when the facts change.